Have you made any of these mistakes? If so, you’re not benefitting from Pinterest as much you could be.

“If your brand isn’t on Pinterest, you’re getting left behind!” “Pinterest drives more sales than Facebook!” Advice like this, from consultants, social media experts, and–yes–websites like this one have a lot of truth to them. But they’ve pushed some small companies into jumping into Pinterest without taking the time to think things through. And that’s led to a lot of mistakes, according to Debba Haupert, channel director at the social media marketing firm Collective Bias, and creator of the blog Girlfriendology.

Here are the seven biggest mistakes she sees companies making when they use Pinterest:

1. Starting out without a strategy.

“We have to be on Pinterest because everyone else is!” isn’t a strategy. And if you don’t have a strategy, you may be wasting time, Haupert warns. “Know your keywords and use them in profiles, pins, and boards,” she says. “Know the categories where your customers will find you. You have to put some thought into it before you jump in.”

2. Using lackluster graphics.

Pinterest is image-driven and your pins are competing against professional photography from landscapes to kittens doing cute things. “You can’t be cheap about your photography,” Haupert says. “If you’re going to make the effort and dedicate the budget and hours it takes to be on Pinterest, you have to have engaging, amazing images that will get you noticed and re-pinned.” For instance, she explains, if your product is a vacuum cleaner, don’t just post shots of your product. Post a before-and-after image of a carpet after it removed a stain. Pinterest users with stains on their own carpets will take notice. Another option is to skip the photography and create interesting graphics with text or charts, she adds.

3. Being boring.

Brands become boring if they appear overly corporate, Haupert explains. “Legal worries have scared some companies away from pinning stuff. That’s too bad because nobody will follow them if all they’re pinning is their catalogue or images from their website. I’ll just go to the catalogue or the website if I want to see that stuff.” If this is you, she suggests adding a line to your bio explaining that your pins are merely intended to share what you find interesting, not necessarily endorse it.

4. Leaving boards unchanged for too long.

“That shows a lack of engagement and a missed opportunity,” Haupert says. “If you start it and then forget it, there’s no reason for anyone to follow you.”

At least move boards around from time to time, she says. And pay attention to seasonal issues–don’t have summer fashions on your board in January.

5. Using representatives who don’t understand the brand.

Companies often hire recent college graduates or other young folks to pin on their behalf only because they know Pinterest better than their older colleagues do (and they’re often available cheap). “A lot of small business owners tell me their friend’s son will handle social media because they ‘get’ it,” Haupert says. “But they may not know your brand or the tone you want to convey.”

6. Forgetting your audience.

It’s too easy to get lost in pinning what you find interesting or what represents your brand without paying attention to what your target customers care about. So pay attention to what people like, Haupert says. “Notice what they re-pin, then just do more of that,” she says. “You need to interact, respond to questions, and make sure you have boards aimed at your specific audience.”

7. Ignoring the competition.

Notice what other companies in your field are doing, and mine their pins for good ideas. For instance, Haupert noted that both a local coffee shop and Starbucks had Pinterest boards. The Starbucks’ board featured appealing shots of coffee drinks that were getting re-pinned frequently. The local coffee shop had merely posted its logo and left it at that. “Make sure you know what companies going after the same customers are doing,” she advises.

Minda Zetlin is a business technology writer and speaker, co-author of The Geek Gap, and president of the American Society of Journalists and Authors. @MindaZetlin

Every firm has something that it calls a market strategy. Unfortunately, many market strategies are ineffective and almost guarantee failure. Market strategies that really work always have the following characteristics:

1. They are strategic rather than tactical.

This sounds simple, but it’s a point that many people find confusing. Strategies define goals to be achieved while tactics define the actions you’ll take to achieve those goals. Example:

Strategy: “Double sales revenue in the Midwest territory.”

Tactic: “Hire three more salespeople in the Midwest territory.”

2. They are measurable rather than vague.

You can’t manage what you can’t measure. If your goals are vague, you have no idea whether your tactics are achieving them. Example:

Measurable: “Double sales revenue in the Midwest territory.”

Vague: “Achieve industry and thought leadership.”

3. They are “actionable” rather than contingent.

A strategic goal should be achievable through the tactics that support it, rather than dependent upon uncontrollable outside forces. Example:

Actionable: “Double sales revenue in the Midwest territory.

Contingent: “Increase our publicly-held stock price by 50%.”

4. They are clearly articulated.

The more difficult it is for employees to understand a strategy, the less likely they are to be able to help achieve it. Example:

Clear: “Double sales revenue in the Midwest territory.”

Unclear: “Focus both externally and internally (customer’s customer and internal alignment necessary to respond), with internal collaboration with common focus/goals by stakeholders accountable for ultimate business results oriented, optimized and coordinated outputs, aligned around the sales cycle.”

5. They are achievable rather than inspirational.

There’s nothing wrong with having an inspirational vision of what your firm’s about but a vision is not the same as a strategy.

Achievable: “Double sales revenue in the Midwest territory.”

Inspirational: “Make a difference and change the world.”

6. They have a business plan behind them.

A strategy is just hot air unless there’s a tactical plan for achieving each strategic goal. For example, if your strategy is (wait for it…) to double sales in the Midwest territory, your business plan would probably include retraining existing personnel, hiring new salespeople, investing in better lead generation methods, and so forth. If the plan’s not there, the strategy isn’t real.

7. They don’t change much.

What’s not so smart is making frequent changes in strategic direction. Such changes upend everything and productive work grinds to a halt as everyone tries to rethink what they’re doing in order to fit it into the new strategy.

Because of this, changes in strategy should be undertaken only when it’s clear that achieving a strategic goal is either impossible or no longer desirable.

It’s every digital marketer’s dream to be present at the exact moment when people begin to discuss your brand’s products and services online. It provides a chance to educate, entertain, or solve problems for people within your target persona groups. This is a difficult proposition, however, if you don’t know where your prospects hang out on a regular basis.

Understanding where your target personas hang out typically takes a lot of research and exploration. But a recent e-book by Hubspot, the Online Marketing Opportunity Report, can help marketers answer this question by compiling data from conversations in social media, the blogosphere and search engines for 33 different industries.

Overall Online Activity by Industry

Where is the most online activity taking place in your industry between search, social media, and the blogosphere? Using a proprietary algorithm, HubSpot analyzed data for 33 keywords that describe some common industries. These data points were compiled into online activity graphs that illustrate where the conversations are taking place.

Overall Online Activity by Channel

Social Media Activity by Industry

The Online Marketing Opportunity Report breaks up the social media segment into the top four social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. The data is also segmented across the same 33 industries.

How to Interpret the Online Activity Charts

This is very powerful information–but it’s only a relative measurement of online activity for any of the 33 industries from the report. These graphs display trends, not exact numbers. HubSpot is also quick to remind the reader that the most active areas for each industry may not always be the most lucrative, as a “road less traveled” strategy may prove more successful in some cases.

Formulate a Strategy for Each Channel

This is an intense–and probably the most important–chapter of the e-book. The social media section gives strategic advice for each of the big four social media platforms listed in the Social Media Activity graph. The blog section outlines how to target users through search engine results and RSS feeds. The search section is brief and suggests reading the 2011 Online Marketing Blueprint for full details on targeting users in the search segment.

Industry Opportunity Analysis

The absolute activity figures for each marketing segment (search, social media, and blogs) are provided for each industry in the appendix of the e-book. These data include monthly search traffic, blog posts per month, tweets per month, Facebook fan bases, LinkedIn groups, and YouTube video statistics for each of the 33 industries. Relative competitive measurements (on a scale of 0-100) are also provided for each marketing segment. Combining these data can help marketers find the online marketing channel with optimal mix of activity and competition that works for their specific organization.

I found the Online Marketing Opportunity Report to be very informative. It can be the best fit for digital marketers who have had difficulty locating industry conversations and activity online. Use the findings in the e-book to get the jumpstart you need to find online conversations happening in your industry.

About the Author:

Aaron Aders is co-founder and chief strategy officer of Indianapolis-based Slingshot SEO, a national leader in online marketing, planning, and execution. Aders steers the strategic vision behind software and business processes.